E-Malt.com News article: USA, OR: Full Sail Brewing to add sales staff after closing acquisition by investment group led by Encore Consumer Capital

Full Sail Brewing will add sales staff quickly after closing the acquisition by an investment group led by San Francisco-based Encore Consumer Capital, but few other changes will be apparent, the company's chief executive was quoted as saying by Oregon Live on March 10.

The company's goal is for a "very seamless" change of control, said Irene Firmat, the company's chief executive and cofounder. "We hope it won't feel like a transition."

Encore Consumer Capital paid "a premium price" for Full Sail, which has been owned by its employees through a stock ownership plan, she said. And while the deal cashes out Full Sail's 78 employee-shareholders, none are leaving the company, she said.

About 98 percent of the company's employees voted in favor of the deal, Firmat said. The vote was first reported by the New School Beer blog.

"In the short term, it will be business as usual at Full Sail," Scott Sellers, Encore Consumer's managing director, in an email. "Over time, we are looking to grow the company and there will be additions to the team. Sales and marketing will be the area where the most resources will be added."

Firmat said the increasingly competitive brewing marketplace, marked by continuing new entrants and a consolidation among distributors, makes for intense competition for shelf space. While Encore Consumer has never invested in a brewery before now, "it understands the complexity of the marketplace," she said.

She said the company expects to add six salespeople immediately and more over time.

Full Sail was in the forefront of Oregon's craft brewing revolution, launching in 1987 with a $250,000 investment from the state's lottery-backed Oregon Resource and Technology Development Corp. It repaid that investment, plus a profit, to the state and launched on a path to become one of Oregon's most popular breweries, producing more than 115,000 barrels last year.

Along the way, it encountered bumps, including the 1999 dance with Indian investor Vijay Mallya -- a courtship that faded, leaving Full Sail gasping for resources.

"It was awful," Firmat recalled. "It was such a feeling of helplessness."

She and her husband, Full Sail executive brewmaster Jamie Emmerson, took on sizable debt while taking no money out of the company, except for their salaries, she said.

The deal with Encore Consumer Capital is "a great opportunity to honor the commitment we made in 1999," she said. "This is such a success story."

Firmat declined to say what Encore agreed to pay to take control of Full Sail. She said the new owners were eager to retain the company's employees.

Encore Consumer Capital has invested in a variety of consumer products companies, including Aidells Sausage Co., Ciao Bella Gelato, Van Law Food Products, Juice Tyme, Isopure and others. It has exited some of those investments through sales of its stake to companies such as J&J Snack Foods and Nestle Purina.


11 March, 2015